An Emergency Response Team officer escorted the man toward a police truck at around 2:20 p.m., six hours after officers responded to multiple calls about an attempted robbery.

The man appeared to be in his 20s or 30s, was wearing a blue plaid shirt and came out with his head down. A crowd gathered at a nearby intersection applauded.

Surrey RCMP said in a statement that a male suspect had been arrested without incident and no one else was found inside the building.

"Officers remain on scene clearing the building and maintaining a perimeter around the building for public safety. Investigators continue to gather evidence and speak to potential witnesses."

Police arrived at the bank in the Newton area at about 8:30 a.m., and found staff and customers already outside.

RCMP Cpl. Scotty Schumann said officers were unsure at that time if someone was still inside because nobody could say with certainty if the suspect had left.

Witnesses reported that a man indicated he had a weapon but police have not confirmed if one existed.

Businesses and roads were shut down surrounding the TD Canada Trust branch at a shopping plaza.

Yellow police tape blocked off every entrance to the bank, with cruisers parked at wide intervals. Officers were stationed on the rooftop of a nearby building.

Police used loudspeakers to try and communicate with anyone in the building but had no response.

Just before 2 p.m., six Emergency Response Team officers entered the building in single file with a police dog in tow.

Patricia Merritt, who's been a local resident for more than 20 years, said she was relieved after watching the man with a slender build being escorted from the bank.

"I was hoping it would end peacefully, but I'm sad to see it's a young man -- another youth."

"Newton -- we were talking about the good old days -- when we used to walk from one end of Newton to the other without worries. And now to see our little Newton become unsafe, it's pretty sad."

Rhonda Kerr and her daughter Tiarra Kerr were passing through a bus loop next to the bank around 8:30 a.m., when police began surrounding the area. They believed they spotted two people inside the bank peer through a large window, then quickly pull the blinds shut.

"It was plain as day. Everybody said the same thing -- 'Did you see them in there?"' Rhonda Kerr said.

"Then you saw all the police come in, cop car after cop car. Shortly after that we saw the SWAT team and command centre arrive and set up."

Just before noon, she said she heard police make announcements over a megaphone, saying, "The place is surrounded, come out with your hands up or we will come in."

Tiarra Kerr said that about 10 minutes later an officer made a second announcement: "Somebody is calling the bank now. Please pick up the phone so we can establish communication so we can see what you need."

After watching police bring out the man, she said she was happy that no one was hurt.

Advertisements

Latest Canada & World News

VANCOUVER - A 51-year-old man has been arrested in the 2014 death of a two-year-old girl and North Vancouver Mounties say it's believe she was poisoned by snake venom.
Police say Henry Thomas had the girl in his care on May 18, 2014, and returned her to her mother that day in North Vancouver.
Source

MEXICO CITY - Authorities say three gunmen have shot to death seven people at a house in the Mexican resort city of Cancun, in an apparent dispute between street-level drug dealers. Cancun is located in the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo.
Source

VICTORIA -- A man who illegally shot a moose in British Columbia's southern Interior has been fined $10,000 after leaving the animal to suffer before it died.
The B.C. Conservation Officer Service says it began an investigation in November 2017 after the man from Surrey, B.C.
Source

QUEBEC - The head of the Quebec City mosque where six men were killed in a shooting almost two years ago wants the province to tighten up controls over who has access to firearms. In a letter to Premier Francois Legault, Boufeldja Benabdallah identifies a weakness when it comes to verifying people who have mental health problems.
Source

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. - A drunk driver who killed RCMP Const. Sarah Beckett in a crash has been granted limited day parole to attend alcohol abuse treatment. Kenneth Fenton was handed a five-year, six-month prison sentence in July 2017 and his first parole hearing was held today at a medium-security prison in Abbotsford, B.C.
Source

Ice is melting in an unexpected region of Greenland at a rate that is unprecedented in the past century, according to a study published Monday, which could lead to rising sea levels and increasingly wild weather on the East Coast.
Source

The European Union has sanctioned the heads of Russia's military intelligence and two of their officers for poisoning a former Russian double agent in Britain last year, a decision Moscow dismissed as groundless.
The EU travel bans and asset freezes issued Monday are against two men Britain has named as Russia intelligence officers Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov and accused of attempting to murder Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Source

Welcome to The National Today newsletter, which takes a closer look at what's happening around some of the day's most notable stories. Sign up here and it will be delivered directly to your inbox Monday to Friday. Source

A Thunder Bay, Ont., man will stand trial for second degree murder in the death of an Indigenous woman who was hit by a trailer hitch in January 2017.
Brayden Bushby was initially charged with aggravated assault, accused of throwing a metal trailer hitch from a moving vehicle which struck 34-year-old Barbara Kentner.
Source

MEXICO CITY -- The death toll in a massive fire at an illegally tapped pipeline in Mexico rose to 89 Monday as more of the injured have died at hospitals. Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer said 51 victims severely burned in the fire were still in hospitals, two of them in Galveston, Texas.
Source